Introduction to Legion

Official Reviewer

My real name is Matt McClellan. I'm from a small town called Riverview, which is located in New Brunswick, Canada. I watched a few animes when I was young, not knowing they were anime. The '80s Astroboy, Samurai Pizza Cats, Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon. I began to realize that these shows were related in art style and that the characters mouths only moved up and down. In my mind I labeled these as 'that different kind of cartoon'. When I finally laid eyes on Dragon Ball Z, I began to find out that these cartoons were from Japan and were called anime.

I started hearing more and more about anime, but it wasn't until sometime later that I saw my first uncut anime movie, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. That clinched it, I decided I needed to see more anime. When I saw Akira on sale at my local Blockbuster for a fairly low price, I bought it. That was when I started to become an anime fan. Ghost in the Shell was the second anime I bought and I suppose that made me a little spoiled. After that, I did begin to see bad anime and realized I had to be careful when buying anime, since I didn't have much money to begin with and I didn't want to see it wasted.

For awhile, all the anime I saw and/or bought was dubbed. It wasn't until someone I know lent me a bootleg of Harmegeddon that I saw my first subtitled anime. My first reaction wasn't 'ohhhhh no, that's so stupid!' as I've heard many people say. Rather it was 'Hey, cool, I've been wondering what anime's like in Japanese.' I guess the thought of subtitles has never bothered me and actually viewing them never distracted me too much. If you stop trying so hard to read the words and look at the picture and just watch the movie your mind'll seem like it's doing both and you won't miss anything. So, I guess I've always been one of the rarer anime fans: the neutral. I'm not pro-sub or pro-dub. The language of anime has never really mattered to me, nor has it influenced my purchasing decision. Naturally, if I hear of a good anime but a lot of people say it has a bad dub, I'll probably sway toward the sub. Likewise, if I hear about a good anime but a lot of people say it has a really poor subbing job (not many people comment of Japanese voice acting, unfortunately) I'll probably sway toward the dub. However, I've never purchased an anime based on its format alone.

My tastes in anime are very broad. I like the classics like Akira and the other greats like Ghost in the Shell and the masterpieces like Princess Mononoke. But I also go for many others like Comedy and Martial Arts anime. I enjoy watching them, if not for a story, then for pure fun-factor. I guess I like a lot of 'shonen' anime. I don't care for Hentai and I'm pretty wary of Magical Girl shows. I like a lot of shoujo, or rather I like a lot of shoujo that I've seen (which isn't too much). They tend to have good stories but the main thing I like about shoujo anime is that they're character driven, and I really like a good character driven story (Like Captain Tylor, which isn't shoujo, but you get my drift). I love watching movies that are just about a person and his life. I wish there were more animes like that.

The last time I took an anime Otaku-ness test (an anime purity test if you will) I scored just under a shameful Otaku. I couldn't help but frown at that. I don't like to be called and Otaku, partly because the word is defined as the most rabid and annoying fan out there and because most of the people I've met who proudly flaunt their Otaku-ness are not the kind of people that I want to be a part of. I'm rather sick of Otaku's who insult and put down their own country and promote Japan just because they like anime and manga. North America's take on animation and comics is *different* than Japan's. It doesn't matter to me that North American animation is mostly for children while Japan's animation is for everyone. That's their way, and this is our way. I don't like how people say anime is animation but all North American animation are cartoons. That's just downright disrespectful. All animation is either a cartoon, be it American or Japanese or it's all animation. Choose one, but trying to have it both ways isn't right. And basing a countries superiority on animation and comics is ridiculous. The U.S. and Canada aren't perfect, but neither is Japan. These countries have their strong points and their weak points and are different, unique and interesting but not superior. Nobody's perfect so no country is perfect. I don't understand why Otaku's don't understand this. I also don't like how Otaku's ridicule dubs. If you don't like them, fine, but pre-judging them just because they're dubs isn't right. Like-wise I don't like when people whine about subtitles based on that fact that they're 'stupid because they don't speak my language'. They're different, that's all. If a Japanese person came here, I'm sure he/she would get a kick out of watching anime in english, since english is so popular in Japan.

When I was a kid, I promised myself a lot of things. I've outgrown almost all of those promises but the one I kept was that I would keep watching cartoons (which is what I called them as a child) no matter how old I got. I've still kept my promise. I still watch a lot of animation from both West and East. Anime can be fun, entertaining, thought provoking, emotional, masterful or melodramatic, sappy and downright tasteless and bad. But no matter how much bad anime I see, I know there's plenty of stuff out there that I'll enjoy. No matter how much I learn about anime, I know there's so much more out there for me to discover.

You can e-mail Legion legion, fushigiyugi com